Oregon may be revising part of the city’s sign code to allow electronic changeable copy for businesses.

Oregon Mayor Mike Seferian said at a recent council meeting that he’s received many requests from businesses seeking changes in the sign code dealing with changeable copy.

“The trend nowadays is that signs are LED enhanced, or lit with LED lights,” said Seferian. “We want a starting point to get this into action, so we would actually look forward to seeing council put this into committee so it could be discussed thoroughly so people could be comfortable with the final product. But we do think it’s something needed for our sign code because it seems to be a little antiquated without it.”

The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency has found a third site in Toledo where someone illegally dumped asbestos.

On December 14, the OEPA announced it was seeking information to help nab those responsible for dumping 60 bags of regulated asbestos waste in two Toledo neighborhoods. Thirty-seven bags were dumped at a vacant house in LaGrange Street in North Toledo, and 23 bags were left in an alley near a garage on St. Louis Street in East Toledo. Combined, there was approximately 100 cubic feet of asbestos.

Last week, Dina Pierce, northwest district media coordinator for the Ohio EPA, said a third site was recently discovered on Champlain Street in Toledo.

The Oregon City School District’s decision to close Wynn Elementary School next year, and eliminate busing for high school students is firm, according to Superintendent Mike Zalar.

“The decision has been made,” said Zalar. “We’re trying to get information out to parents regarding what the changes are going to mean for the next semester. We’re trying to have the minimal impact on teaching and learning in the classroom. There’s no direct impact on the classroom with the elimination of busing for high school students and closing an elementary building.”

Some parents have raised concerns about the cuts since Nov. 29, when the board eliminated seven teaching positions, announced the closure of Wynn, which has an enrollment of 287 students, and eliminated busing for high school students to cut $2.8 million from the budget.

An evidentiary hearing is scheduled for later this month to consider testimony in a case centering on rates for FirstEnergy’s all-electric customers.

The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio said it set the hearing for Jan. 27 in Columbus to allow parties more time to prepare testimony.

After holding six public meetings to accept comment on all-electric rates, including one in October in Maumee, the PUCO is entering the final phase of a process that will decide the fate of a discount for those consumers. Currently, the discount is scheduled to remain in effect through May 31 of this year.

FirstEnergy implemented discounted rates in the 1970s for consumers in all-electric homes.

In 2006, the PUCO approved an agreement between the company and cities of Akron, Toledo, and Cleveland to establish electric generation rates through 2008 to shield consumers from potential “rate shock.” The so-called rate certainty plan was considered necessary because a competitive market in electricity generation hadn’t developed after the state adopted a format for de-regulating the industry.

While it had plenty of critics, the bill signed recently by President Barack Obama that extends current income tax rates is getting a round of applause from - of all people - conservationists.

That’s because House Resolution 4853, the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010, includes an incentive for landowners who enlist their property with a voluntary conservation agreement.

Kevin Joyce, executive director of the Black Swamp Conservancy, says the incentive has enabled the conservancy to work with landowners to conserve more than 4,500 acres of productive farmland and natural areas between 2006 and 2009.

The incentive had expired at the end of 2009 but was included in the bill retro-active to Jan. 1, 2010.

It applies to a landowner’s income tax by:

• Raising the deduction an owner can take for donating a voluntary conservation agreement from 30 percent of his or her income in any year to 50 percent.